NIU’s Forensics Debate Team captured second place during the weekend while competing in Anderson University’s debate tournament.

Team member John Santeler said the squad entered two novice group debaters and four groups of open-debaters. Each team had three rounds of debates on Friday and Saturday.

Team coach M. Jack Parker said the open varsity division team including Michael Starzec and John Butler was undefeated in the six preliminary rounds and won the semifinals and finals.

The entire debate team placed second overall in the tournament and received the Sweepstakes Award, Parker said.

After competing in the preliminary rounds, Butler and Starzec placed in the top five of all debaters and were given individual speaker awards.

The weekend’s debate was concerned with politically correct speech, focusing on whether colleges and universities have acted appropriately on subjects of race and gender, Parker said.

NIU will host its own tournament this weekend on speech codes. Students who are interested in attending the debates should go to the lobby of DuSable Hall, where they can find out times and places.

“The upcoming event this weekend will provide a real look at what a debate round is like,” said team member Jennifer Munsyac. “They will see how competitive the activity is.”